it's not prophetic if you didn't see it coming first
by thewindwarns
Summary: In her dreams she is always drowning, reaching for a hand that is no longer there. PacificRim!AU, with slight Jeyna. Originally written in October 2013.


Title: it's not prophetic if you didn't see it coming first  
Fandom: Percy Jackson &amp; the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus x Pacific Rim  
Rating: G  
Words: 1580 words  
Characters/Pairings: Slight Jeyna, reference to Jasper, and brief appearances from other demigods  
Notes: So this happened, and I wanted to publish it before the release of House of Hades. Super AU, and not canon-compliant in any shape or form.

In her dreams she is always drowning, reaching for a hand that is no longer there. When she wakes, gasping for air, her body takes all too long to realize she's still on steady land.

There are nights when she feels it too easy to lose herself to what remains of the Drift, and so she walks along the wall she has helped forge, the adrenaline in her veins a drug to keep her last moments with Hylla tucked away. Her sister lingers, a reminder of what she failed to do, of what she is still running away from. It hurts just the same as it did all those years ago.

* * *

Zhang is still shouting orders when the line goes out, but Chiron holds his breath, fists clenched.

They wait for one minute, then two, before -

"We're okay. Annabeth's leg is in bad shape, but we're okay."

And with that, the city is safe, but their best Rangers are in no condition to fight the monsters yet to come.

It's only after Chase and Jackson are back in the Shatterdome and they're gathered in the meeting room that DiAngelo lifts his head from calculations to make the suggestion they've all been thinking but would not say: it's no longer enough to keep the kaiju at bay; they need to shut the doors to Tartarus itself.

He tells Dare to start running the algorithms and generating the list of remaining pilots from the Jupiter Project. They don't have much time left, but then again, they never had much in the first place.

* * *

She spots her former superior first, both all too familiar and out of place with her crisp uniform and the Hunters at her side. "It's been a while, _Lieutenant__. _I thought I would have had a bit longer before you asked me to join you again._"_

"It took our best researcher hacking into the Oracle database to find you. We expected you to be someplace warmer. Would have made things easier for the trip ahead. But I'm not recruiting you for my program. This is about another matter."

She offers Thalia a crooked smile. "Are you telling me I should get my things then?"

* * *

He's assigned with Hazel to meet her, this long forgotten Ranger who once piloted a Jaeger herself to finish off Blackbeard, a gruesome category three. He would be lying if he said he hadn't studied her file carefully, hadn't argued with Rachel about fighting style and Drift compatibility.

His sister exits the chopper first, still looking a little sick from the flight, and Reyna is next. She's smaller than he imagined, but carries herself with the same sense of authority he always sensed from Annabeth. It's only when Hazel elbows him hard that he remembers to introduce himself, and at the mention of Grace he notices her eyes studying him for just a moment longer. He can't help wondering what he thinks of him, even long after Thalia tells him to head back to the control room to help Leo since Hazel could take it from there.

* * *

Time passes quickly, and she barely finishes reminiscing with Annabeth and Percy before she is asked to report to the Kwoom. Even though it's been a while since she has sparred at this level, the matches are finished all too quickly, and she can hear Hylla's voice in her head, mocking these cadets that think they could best her. It's only when they take a recess and Chiron is consulting with the other officers that she notices the younger Grace in the back of the crowd.

"Him," she says, her voice echoing in the chamber, "I want to fight him."

The score is 3-3 when Percy remarks that they will make quite the pair. She helps Jason up, and were it not for her elevated heartbeat and the sheer anticipation of being back in Scipio, she would have sworn she felt a spark of electricity passing from his hand.

* * *

He knows the conversation won't be easy – they've sidestepped and argued about it so often over the years that he can finish her thoughts before she voices them aloud. He still remembers when his sister first found him, wandering around a refugee camp after the first attacks, an amnesiac with little to hold onto apart from a scar. It seems almost too cruel to push her now, given what's to come, after they've lost so many friends to war.

Thalia paces around their small room, sighing. It's only after a long moment that she speaks. "If something happens – I can't lose you. Not after Mom and Zoe and Luke and –"

"You can't protect me forever, sis. Besides, if I don't do this, who will? There are few enough Rangers that can handle this assignment as is."

"Just – just come back in this lifetime, alright?"

"I promise."

They've never been ones for grand displays of affection, but Thalia humors him with a hug anyway.

* * *

Their trial run is something of a disaster, to put it lightly, and nearly as destructive as Michael Varus' first drop. He doesn't need a reprimand from Dionysus or the disapproving politicians sitting high atop Mount Olympus to know it was a risky plan from the start. He's thought about the proposed alternatives, of course, of focusing on what will soon enough prove to be flimsy barriers – it doesn't take much forecasting to predict that these monsters will come back stronger, that some manmade wall will crumble easily under their strength - but it's only when Lupa tells him to have a little more faith in those she's trained that he tells the two Rangers they have another chance.

Reyna nods, thanking him in that diplomatic way that reminds him of how much potential she showed in those early days, back when Hylla was the one the needed to be watched, but Jason still averts his eyes. It's out of shame, Chiron thinks, a fear of letting others down, but there is little he can do to convince the young man standing before him to think otherwise.

* * *

Leo seeks him out first, cracking jokes about upgrading old machines too quickly ("Remember Festus?"), but it's Piper that finally manages to shake him out of his mood, that corners him and tells him he's being so utterly counter-productive by wallowing in self-pity. She uses words that aren't quite as harsh, but the meaning is still clear: with 51 drops and 51 kills to his name, and a reputation to live up to, he, above all else, is capable of co-piloting this Jaeger.

He doesn't want to tell her that the flashbacks to when he couldn't protect her - when he had left her in harm's way – are what triggered everything, but even with all their time apart, it's clear she already knows what he's been thinking.

"You have other people to take care of now, remember? Don't worry about me. I'll be safe."

When she leaves his room, he finds Reyna just outside carrying two trays, and before he can protest, she's leading him down the hallway to have lunch on the bay.

* * *

"Piper and I aren't—"

"I know. I've been in your head, remember?"

"Oh, yeah."

They sit in silence for a while, until she offers him half of her peanut butter sandwich.

"It'll get easier, not thinking about it. Letting it wash over you."

"But we don't have time for me to mess up again. You saw what almost happened there and—"

She looks at him then, stares straight into his eyes, and takes a deep breath. If he didn't know this already, he will certainly understand her now. "You know, they told me to go in with someone else acceptable off that list – maybe even Percy, since we're Drift compatible – but I fought for you. Told them to wait. And even after having to endure a long flight with your sister, constantly worrying about whether or not she'd get sick, after having to deal with wisecracks about my taste in men from Octavian, who is just as irritating as I last remembered, after what it's taken me to trust someone after losing Hylla, you're still going to do this to me?"

His jaw drops, just a little, and when she focuses on the scar on his upper lip she wonders exactly when she started thinking he was cute. (It was Percy's teasing, she's sure, which had been the cause of it all.)

She half-expects him to make a well-intentioned but ultimately exasperating apology, but a part of her already knows what he'll say instead. His response that he will need just another second to finish what's left of his food before suiting up again more than exceeds her expectations.

* * *

It happens fast – one moment they're preparing for their second trial run, and the next three signatures appear on the screen. Category fives. Reyna thinks about what she's seen in the Drift, of fear and doubt and desire, and pushes it away. She looks at Jason, gives his hand a squeeze.

"Chiron? We'll see you on the other side."


End file.
